Glubokii Boy

Hello ! A small update on mission 4... The first three scenarios in this campaign will be using modified QB maps that have been enlarged and moddified in various degrees but for mission 4 and 5 i have decided to make my own maps from scratch. Below you can see a few WIP pictures of the map i'm making for scenario 4. This will be a LARGE map (if no changes are made it will be 3000 X 1600 meters) to allow for some manuvering. The player will be commanding a company + sized, fully mechanized (motorized) force from kampfgruppe Lindig supported by parts of 2nd battery, 189th StuG Abt. As mentioned above the goal will be to destroy the russian AT-equipment deployed in-/ around the village to allow the main force from kampfgruppe Lindig to advance along the main road towards the southeast... I have scrapped the plan to give the player some additional panthers (atleast for now...). The player will have to make due with his trusted old assultguns. I think this might fit better in with the original idea with the campaign. The player being an assultguncommander... Some pics (WIP)... The panzergrenadiers from the 5th regiment are advancing on the village supported by your good old StuGs.At the same time the village is beeing shelled by self proppeled artillery from Kampgruppe Lindig (not player controlled). Despite the size of the map....FPS is good

An other suggestion might be that if we for example rightclick the name in the purchase screen...parts of the in-game UI will be shown below. Something like this... This will only be possible with individual units and not the formations though...

Maybe the 'unit prewiew' does not have to be on the actual scenariomap...A simple map with nothing but grass... big enough to have room for a mechanized battalion might be all that is needed. Loading-times on such a map should not be all that long...

Some sort of encyclopedia has been asked for in various threads for a long time and i agree...It would be a welcome addition. When it comes to scenarios...What i think could be an easy fix until we get an actual Encyclopedia (it might not be)......would be to allow the scenariodesigner to add BMP-files to the breifing-text section of the briefing screen...The only option now is to use a text-file (if i'm not wrong). If the designer could upload multiple picures (brief1, brief2, brief3....for example) and have this be shown as a multi-page section in the breifing-text section of the briefing...The designer could easily include more information on the relevant Equipment (from the manual Encyclopedia)... Like so... The first pages of the breifing text could be the standard briefing text and on subsequent pages some additional information could be shown...

Great work...! Please continue with these kind of scenarios...This is just what CM needs... I currently don't have that much time to play as i'm trying to finish my biggest project yet...A small campaign for CMRT... but i do need a break from working on this project every now and then and these scenarios of yours is what i spend my 'time off' with ... high quality work imo...and if you will be able to produce one or two of these each month...BRAVO ! Thank you...

Hello If you are looking for some heavy rubble effects...using rubbled modular buildings works OK i think... like this... Here i have used rubbled buildings, heavy rocks and a few rocks flavoured objects...

This is true unfortunatelly...but in my experience this is the only option avaliable right now to get them to move together... With longer moves you might try to use a few more ORDERS and mix what kind they are... Part of the move might work well with them moving in bounds and at the crusial point use a DASH order... I don't really remember right now if the halt-rutin that aplies to veichles when they reach a new 'waypoint' also aplies to infantry...This is another problem...(veichles will only move one orderlocation/turn as a maximum and wait there for the next turn...before continuing) I have found however that using DASH as a attack/assult order often work better simply because the fact that all units in the group move together... This has beeni my experience with the editor so far...hopefully some other guys have another way you can achive your desired results...

This depens on what ordertype you use for the next orderlocation... some movement orders will have them move in bounds like you describe... using DASH will have them all move together...

The timeline '42 to early '43 is the one i'm looking forward to more then anything... Kharkow, case blue, operation Uranus, winterstorm, operation saturn and so on and so on....Many intresting scenarios can be made here...both historical and fictional... some ' what if ' scenarios i'm looking forward to playing-/ trying to make at other dates will be during the '41 timeframe - Prepared, Well lead, well equiped russians at the start of Barbarossa...(that means...no paranoid Stalin having killed every capable officer before the war) - Germans prepared and equiped for winter warfare during the fall/winter of '41 giving the germans a better chans to succed with operation Typhooon and actually fight for Moscow...

Cool ! Uuuh...the things thoose guys must have experienced... and still been able to continue fighting is undoubtedly a bit hard to comprehend (goes for the soldiers on both sides offcourse...) As far as the campaign goes progress is a bit slow right now...I'm currently tweaking and testing the end-part of these first three scenarios...It takes quiet a bit of time... Progess is being made though...slowely but surely... I have also begun some very early work on mission 4 and 5 This is what the WIP briefing text looks like for the first three scenarios... mission 1 mission 2 mission 3 Something simular atleast is likely to be the final version..(these pictures will be somewhat larger in the actual game...) Unfortunatelly there is a limit to how much text there is room for... but there will also be a textfile briefing with some additional information in the original briefingtext-field... In mission 4... kampfgruppe Lindig will have arrived in the area defended by the 78th Sturm division. This reinforcement will allow for a small counterattack with the goal of isolating the russian spearhead forces. Your 2nd battery along with any other surviving parts of StuG Abteiling 189 will be detached from the 78th Sturm division on from now on be a part of kampfgruppe Lindig. In mission 4 your battery along with some troops from the 5th panzergrenadier regiment will be tasked with clearing an enemy held village on the left flank of kampfgruppe lindigs main push. The enemy have deployed a number of anti tank guns in this villiage that will need to be neutrolized before the main attack can begin. To help fend of any enemy armour that might be encountered the player will also be given a few tanks from the 29th panzer regiment as a reserv (i have not yet decided what kind but i'm thinking about Panthers of PzIVs...i will do some googeling... ) In mission 5.... Despite your best efforts the overall situation along the front have deterioated completally and the russians have been able to bypass and encircle the entire german defensive line east of Minsk. As part of kampgruppe Lindig your battery will part of the spearheadforces in an breakout attempt.. It will be up to you to punsch a hole in the enemy line to allow other friendly to escape... That is the plan for now....

good point...darn !

Yes...the idea with seperate tiles for snow would probably work imo...If its deep snow it does not much matter what kind of terrain is below the snow (if its a road, grass or some kind of crop...)...Its simply deep snow...

I kind of like the basic idea with broken troops becoming MIAs if they can't be made to rally within a certain time. Exactelly how this could be made to work though...i have no good answer for..

Yes, very nice ! this might very well be the best 'bombed out' city map i have seen so far and the overall mapdesign is VERY GOOD ! I have downloaded this one and will take it for a spin tonight... Thank you for these scenarios...

Sorry, to keep nagging about this.... But it has atleast been my impression that the bulge games 'big one' and main selling point will be... New winterconditions (Graphics, effects, gameplay functions...)...and i still hope (trust) it will be. "BFC have never dissapointed yet"...true, true...But if BFC decides to port the snow effects from CMFI then this will be a first for BFC imo...a dissapointment ! But i don't think they will dissapoint

Good for you ! I don't dissagree with you...I just think the modded ones are better... And i shall do my best to stop using CAPs if that what you mean ?

Why are you playing this game ???

Better to get those negative reaction BEFORE the game comes out...rather then AFTER This atleast gives BFC a chans to do something about them...If they considder them valid.

I don't think that it is that much that is 'wrong' with the out of the box stuff but some things CAN BE, and ACTUALLY ARE improved by the MODDERS. To name the two biggest improvements the MODDERS bring to the game imo that would be... WEATHERED VEICHLES and IMPROVMENTS to the UI I don't think that there are very many players that HAVE NOT downloaded ALL of Aris and Kiemes weathered veichles as well as juju's UI for example... There's nothing 'wrong' with the stock veichle textures but they may look a bit to BRAND NEW... It has become more or less 'rutin' that some talented MODDERS set about to edit these veichles as soon as the games come out and as i said...this modding brings some increased activity to the forum...wich i think BFC likes. Had these MODDERS not been around i think that BFC themself would indeed 'improve' the STOCK veichle textures in a simular way before releasing the game... As things are now...that is not neccesary and i think/hope that the MODDERS actually enjoys editing these things. This allows BFC to spend more time on other things like the VEICHLE MODELS, SOLDIER MODELS, ANIMATIONS and stuff like that that they do VERY WELL ! The veichle- and soldier models are indeed VERY GOOD ! Most of the terrain graphics are also GOOD right out of the box but the MODDERS brings some improvements to this to. Things like the SUN EFFECTS are also very nice...So NO, the game is not 'BAD' when it comes out of the box...FAR FROM IT ! The things i did not like about the BULGE photos was not the textures (these can- and hopefully will be modded). It was the flattness of the snow graphics...on the ground, on the vegitation, on the buildings and on the veicles. As i mentioned earlier in this thread...THE BULGE GAME will be the first BASEGAME based on winter conditions. I had hoped to see some more 3d effects/depth to the snow grapics and when i questioned why they showed us these pictures this is what i ment. The WINTER CONDITION is one of the PRIMARY features of this game and this BONE showed nothing new in this regard...or to be honest...Nothing new at all... Thats why i think that showing these pictures now, in this state, might have been a bit premature...Yes...It's aplha but why not wait Better to wait until some NEW stuff could be shown... I'm sorry if i'm sounding negative but i really do want nice winter graphics/effects for the future CM games...

As long as we have those VERY TALENTED modders around i don't think that the quality of the stock textures (and the UI) is a big problem. It might even be the opposit. The discussions on the CM FORUM about these MODS are to a large degree what keeps the forum ACTIVE. I think a lot of people more or less check into this place only to check out the latest MODS. Given the lack of 'follow-up scenarios' (even though it shows some signs of improving, i think...) the comments about the MODDING WORK helps to keep this forum ALIVE. This is a GOOD thing ! But i agree...The MODDERS do improve the look of the game...If we did not have them i would be more concerned and i also think that so would BFC...I actually think that BFC more or less counts on those MODDERS - to 'improve' the game... wich...Ones again...is a good tactic as it keeps the forum discussions going and also keeps a 'steady flow of updates and improvments...' going while we are waiting for new releases... Had those MODDERS not been around i think that BFC would have put more time into the textures.. We owe those MODDERS a big THANK YOU !

That could be called PROGRESS...Not complaining i mean...but the IMPROVED QUALITY of games. Yes...We are spoiled. But by now we have HIGH expectations on BFC. They have shown that they are are in a class of their own when it comes to these kind of tactical games but that does not mean that we don't wan't these games to continue evolving. At this day in age snow graphics like in those pictures couldn't possibly be considdered 'GOOD'...(Yes, i know they are in alpha)... The BULGE GAME will without a doubt be the best tactical waregame depicting the battle in the ardennes even without improved snow graphics and new features...But some of us have become 'spoiled' and wish for more then simply - the best...

You're welcome, guys...

Thanks, guys Good suggestion ! I will add this... We shall see...

To be able to use the pictures in CM you will have to save the picture as a BMP file...I haven't been able to do it directly but simply open the picture in PAINT and save it as a 24bit BMP file...

- - - - - - With a few simple mouseclick you can change a picture like this... - - - - to look like this... I think this is pretty cool...Hope you do too...